Jubilith Moore, Ensemble Member
A graduate of Bard College, Jubilith Moore is the Artistic Director of Theatre of Yugen
and has been with the company, and a student of Founder Yuriko Doi since 1993. She
has studied Noh with Richard Emmert, Akira Matsui and Kinue Oshima (Kita school).
While under a Japan Foundation Fellowship in Tokyo, she continued training with
Richard Emmert and had the honor of studying with Kanze School Noh master Shiro
Nomura, Kyogen master Yukio Ishida (Izumi school) and Kotsuzumi Noh drum with
Mitsuo Kama (Ko school.)
With Theatre of Yugen she has performed in Janine Beichman's Drifting Fires (1993);
The award winning Kokoro / True Heart (1994) by Velina Hasu Houston; the Tsure role
in the modern Noh play, The Well of Ignorance (or Down the Dark Well) (1997) by Dr.
Tomio Tada and adapted by Erik Ehn; a Noh adaptation of William Butler Yeats'
Purgatory (1998) which was also part of the Snow in a Silver Bowl National tour (1999);
in several productions of Noh Christmas Carol (1993, ’96, ’97) by Cianna Pamintuan
Stewart with Theatre of Yugen; September 2001 in Erik Ehn's Crazy Horse, later
remounted for a Japan-US tour and renamed The Moon of the Scarlet Plums (2005).
Theatre of Yugen was honored by an invitation to perform Moon at the Aichi World
EXPO 2005. Ms. Moore continues to add new roles and plays to her Kyogen repertoire.
She plays a variety of characters ranging from wily servants, duped masters, pompous
priests, dim thieves, religious zealots and quack doctors. She recently assisted in the
translation of the Kyogen Shuron (A Religious Dispute, 2008) and prior to this
experience, she assisted with the translation of Futari-bakama (Two in One Hakama,
2006).
She worked collectively to create the original experimental pieces: The Clay Play by
Libby Zilber; Norton, I (Being the Most Noble Tale of The fall and Rise of Joshua
Abraham Norton, the First Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of All
Mexico) by Lluis Valls; the award winning Frankenstein adapted by Erik Ehn with
Theatre of Yugen and Don Q, based on the book Don Quixote and adapted by Lluis Valls.
Ms. Moore adapted and directed Hemingway’s short novel The Old Man and The Sea. In
this production she had the great pleasure of working with glass artist turned set
designer Kana Tanaka and composer / musician Dylan Bolles. Ms. Moore performed the
role of the Old Man in the At the Hawk's Well National Tour 2002, a Theatre of Yugen
and Theatre Nohgaku collaboration. A Founding Member of Theatre Nohgaku, (since
2001) she performed the role of the Waki in the world premiere touring production of
Greg Giovanni’s Noh play in English, Pine Barrens (2004). Ms. Moore performed in the
chorus (chorus leader) of the world premier and touring production of Crazy Jane, (2006,
2010), also a Noh play in English, written and composed by David Crandall and
produced by Theatre Nohgaku. Recently she reprised the role of the Waki in Janette
Cheong’s Pagoda, an English language Noh performed to critical acclaim in Tokyo,
Kyoto, Beijing and Hong Kong. Previously it had been performed in London, Dublin,
Oxford and Paris.
She collaborated with composer Cordell Ho on his composition and libretti iPH, based on
Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, which was presented as part of Theatre of Yugen’s Noh
Pressure Cooker. The Theatre of Yugen ensemble culminated a three-year project
written and directed by Erik Ehn called The Cycle Plays with an all-day, one-day
performance on 07/07/07. For this event she performed the Shite role of the ghost of
Johnny Rotten in Winterland and Helen Keller in Dark / Silent. Ms. Moore was in the
ensemble for Letters from a Small House and Pretty and played the role of Jaime in the
adaptation of Long Days Journey into Night as well as singing in the chorus. In October
2009 she performed in Erik Ehn’s Dogsbody, a new work helmed by Serbian director
Dijana Molosevic utilizing the Iliad as its springboard and addressing the challenging
topic of child soldiers, commissioned and performed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
She also adapted and staged a Kyogen-style staging of Voltaire’s Candide, or Optimism
to help commemorate Theatre of Yugen’s 30th anniversary. In April 2011, she directed
and performed the lead role in Erik Ehn’s Cordelia, part of his 17 play Soulographie
project to be staged at La MaMa ETC in November 2012.
Other noteworthy roles are Cecelia in Smartmouth Theater's production of Erik Ehn's
Tailings as directed by Steven Cossan; Mina in Stephen Dietz' Dracula performed with
the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and directed by Laurie McCants; the role of the
Ghost in Woman's Will’s production of Hamlet (the melancholy dame), directed by
Artistic Director Erin Merritt, and Portia in their Merchant of Venice, also directed by
Erin Merritt. Ms. Moore is a founding member of Woman’s Will (1998), an all female
Shakespeare Company in the Bay Area!
Ms. Moore has taught Theatre of Yugen's Winter Training Session since 2003 in addition
to several other seasonal training sessions and workshops. She has been invited to teach
workshops in Nohgaku throughout the country to students of all ages. A representative
list of some of these locations include: University of California, Davis, Morris County
School Technology in New Jersey, Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council in
Washington state and the University of Texas at Austin. Recently she was a Lecturer at
San Francisco State University where she offered an introduction to Nohgaku (Spring
2008). Ms. Moore has assisted Richard Emmert in his American based Noh Training
Project on a number of occasions since 2002. She is also an Artist-in-Residence at San
Francisco's School of the Arts high school (since 1998). In addition to her teaching
activities, she has also created classroom educational guides including: “Kyogen 4 Kids
Study Guide”, “The History of Noh and Kyogen Study Guide” and “At the Hawk’s Well, a
Study Guide”. Ms. Moore has also been a mentor for Junior company members at
Theatre of Yugen, assisting them in the process of acquiring greater technical skill as
well as introducing them to new characters and plays from Theatre of Yugen’s Kyogen in
English repertoire.
In addition to her stage adaptations, she has also written an original short one-act play,
Sweet Mother’s Milkweed (2008), which she directed in a workshop production at
Theatre of Yugen. Working with the waka poetry of Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu
in addition to the Noh play Komachi and the Hundred Nights, Ms. Moore collaged
together a script for her students at the San Francisco School of the Arts entitled Love
and Soul and directed them in it in 2003. Her full-length play de Part U Re was
completed in 1996.
Ms. Moore has been honored with The Ana Itelman Prize as well as The Carter Tobin
Prize for performance. Her student production of Purgatory won the Best Ensemble
award at the 2001 LUNAEA Festival.